Published August 24, 2010
(satosphere/Flickr)
I was bullied relentlessly as a kid. “Waldo,” they called me, for my striking resemblance to that lanky, bespectacled character who’s always lost.
Of course I complained to my teachers and cried to my parents. But I didn’t get any respect till I stood up for myself. I never laid a hand on another kid — not that I can remember — but I did get verbal. The experience helped me find my confidence.
Under the state’s new anti-bullying law, signed in May, Massachusetts has issued guidelines for educators to deal with bullying. The guidelines calls for
helping students understand the dynamics of bullying and cyberbullying, including the underlying power imbalance.
The guidelines also advise:
The principal … will remind the alleged aggressor, target, and witnesses that retaliation is strictly prohibited and will result in disciplinary action.
A teacher who witnesses abuse must notify the principal. Then the principal must notify law enforcement and parents. In other words, the guidelines seem to shift the responsibility from children to the adults. After the startling suicides of an 11-year-old and a 15-year-old girl — thought to have suffered from relentless bullying — parents and politicians had to take action.
But will adult intervention keep kids from picking on kids? Should bullied kids be able to fight back, to help correct the “underlying power imbalance?” The state doesn’t seem to think so.
I would have been terrified of retaliation if someone called the police on my tormentors. Then again, maybe it wouldn’t have lasted so long.
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